Personal network building has become increasingly important. A person may desire to network for a variety of reasons. For example, a person may desire to network for business purposes, social purposes, or for any other suitable reasons. A person may be in proximity of hundred or even thousands of other people every day. However, networking with any of these people is often difficult without any prior knowledge of them. It is challenging to identify desirable people with whom to network from a random or semi-random selection of the general population. Even at a large conference with thousands of attendees who necessarily have at least some common interests, it is often difficult for a person to determine the most relevant of these people with whom to meet. Traditionally, people join organizations and attend events to meet other people, but such activities are often extremely time consuming. Although people who have certain common interests, such as belonging to the same organization, attending the same university, or enjoying the same music, may be near each other at a public location, they are frequently unaware of these common interests and the opportunity to meet each other.
In recent years, people began exploring the Internet for network building, utilizing formats such as chat rooms and news groups for example. Typically, a chat room enables its users to enter and receive messages in real time, while a news group enables its users to post and reply to messages. However, users of chat rooms and news groups are frequently located in different locations, perhaps thousands of miles from each other. As a result, elaborate planning may be needed for people sharing common interests to locate and meet each other. For example, online sites may still require users to complete the elaborate process of visiting the online sites to network with other users and then scheduling a time and place for a meeting, if desired.